Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes

These aren't really Moldy Cupcakes, but they were the night of my Girls Gothtail Party. They are really wonderful Cheesecake-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes. I found the recipe in my Everyday With Rachael Ray Magazine. The cupcakes are great, but the icing sounded very complicated, so I found a simple cream cheese icing recipe. They were delicious and a hit that night.

I am participating in Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum. Stop by her blog for more wonderful recipes!

I have included the recipe below, but keep in mind this is the full recipe with the icing. Ingredients listed also include the icing. I did not make this icing. When you read the instructions you will understand why.

Ingredients:
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs, plus 5 large egg whites
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light brown sugar
Simmering water
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces and chilled

Directions:
Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking liners. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar for 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg white and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, 2 eggs, granulated sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture.

Layer each muffin cup with some of the pumpkin batter, then the cream cheese mixture, then more of the batter. Bake until springy to the touch, 25 minutes. Let cool.

Using the electric mixer, beat the brown sugar, remaining 4 egg whites and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Fill a medium saucepan with enough simmering water to reach a depth of 1 inch; place the mixing bowl on top. Whisk the mixture until it registers 160° on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer the bowl back to the mixer and beat at high speed until fluffy; lower the speed and beat to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat at high speed for 5 minutes. Beat in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. 6. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag; pipe large rosettes on top of the cupcakes.

This is the Cream Cheese Frosting that I made - very good!

I made two changes based on the reviews. I only used one package of cream cheese and 1/4 butter.

Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Dark Candy Apples - A Perfect New Moon Movie Treat

These are the most spectacular candy apples I have ever seen. This usual kid friendly treat is now decadent and dark. The recipe and instruction can be found at MattBites.com. These are perfect to make for the up and coming Twilight/New Moon movie. Use these as a table centerpiece, on a buffet or at each place setting as a place card - just add a tag with names to the sticks. Fabulous!

Posh Pumpkins

I found these amazing velvet Posh Squash made by Olive Juice & Co. These are so beautiful. I see that all the kits to make your own velvet pumpkins are sold out for this fall, but make sure you check the site next year.


I found the Posh Squash on this wonderful creative blog - EAB Designs. EAB Designs made the ones below.

I love these chenille pumpkins as well. Cindy Roberts, of Raggidy Edges, creates these out of vintage chenille fabrics.

You can buy these wonderful apothecary bottle with vintage embellishments at EAB Designs etsy shop.

Girls Gothic Night Out - A Gothtail Party

Here are the final photos from my Gals Gothtail Party. A fun time was had by all and the guest loved that they didn't have to come up with a complete costume. It was easy to dress on the dark side with a few accessories. Please see my previous posts for the invitations and some of the other decorations from the night. This is a really long post. I hope you enjoy!

I am adding this post to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On The Porch. Find many great tablescape ideas from this blog!

I am also going to add this post to a creative post at Today's Creative Blog. Many long hours of creativity went into this party!

This was the table centerpiece on my bar table. I have these great old lighted church widows - they really set the mood.

Glitter skulls hung from silver and black branches on the food table.

The crow stood tall in a hollow candle stick fill with lights.

I have this amazing wrought iron tree in my basement. It spans the celling 10 feet from the trunk and is always fun to decorate for all the holidays!

Feathers, glitter skulls and spiders.

Skull bucket to chill the wine.

Black wine glass with glitter skull scrap book stickers.

My Vampire Kiss Martinis (Cosmopolitans) were a big hit. Glasses were rimed with dripping blood with gummy vampire teeth hung on the edge.

These are the invitations I made. See the full instructions here in a previous post.

And for the night...the girls dressed on the dark side! Fun was had by all.

Goth Bling Halloween Decorations

This is the night I am having my Gals Goth Halloween Party. I have spent way too much time on the decorations...I thought I would share a few details before the party. There will be plenty of photos after this fun evening.

The one thing I was going for at this party was a lot of sparkle and bling. I had a couple bags of dollar store spiders that needed to be glitzed up! A little glitter paint did the trick.

Here is a cool thing I did and totally recycled trash. I bought a few bags of small skulls at Dollar Tree. I took the black mesh bags that they came in, cut the tops and bottoms off and slid them over these cylinder vase/candle holders. They looked spider webish and enabled me to slide my sparkly spiders inbetween and held the spiders in place. I was able to hang a few on the outside as well.

A creepy wrought iron owl was perfect for this party.

Here are a more of my sparkly spiders and the product that gave them their bling! It is a paint called Extreme Glitter. I found this at Joann's and it came in several colors - I used the silver. It went on opaque, but dried clear with lots of glitter. I liked the fact that the paint let the color of the object show through. I used it on the spiders, small skulls and skeleton hands - all from the dollar store.

See the invitations I made in this previous post.

Halloween Glasses and Garnishes

C heck out these fun (I mean gruesome) Glasses and Garnishes from Better Homes and Gardens. There are many more to see so visit the BGH site.

Tacky Party Theme - Halloween Party

This was a Tacky Halloween Bunko I had a few years back. Instead of everyone dressing in random costumes I requested everyone to search their closet for their most tacky belongings. We all have something from 80's tucked in the closet!

I had a group photo of some of us from a past Halloween Party. We had these hideous costumes on with enlarged behinds and this inspired my invitation.

Bootylicious Bunko

No fright this eve, just dress as tacky as can be, maybe something from 1983

Polyester, plaids and shoulder pads and you are sure to look so fab.

I made certificates and awards to give out for those who were creative with their outfits. I attached the certificate to a gift bag so everyone could place a vote in each of the categories.

Here are close-ups of the different categories and the prizes.

Sexy leopard panties with a little fur trim for the gal with the Best Bootylicous Booty!

Sparkly over sized shoulder pads trimmed in fur.

Glamorous visor.

The grand winner Miss Tackylicious!

Best use of Hairspray received a bottle of White Rain hairspray and sponge rollers.

And the winners are...

I made these radish eyeballs to put in the drinks. I soaked them in water then put them in the freezer. They are a fun accent for any Halloween Party. Freeze them in an ice cube tray for full size cubes.

It doesn't have to be Halloween to have a tacky party.